


An American Dream

by a_different_equation



Series: Johnlock Around The World [1]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - America, Canon Divergence - A Study in Pink, Character Study, Experimental Style, M/M, Magical Realism, New York City, Not What It Looks Like, Poetic, Pre-Canon, Pre-Episode: s01e01 A Study in Pink, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2018-11-23 10:17:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11400534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_different_equation/pseuds/a_different_equation
Summary: Before meeting Mike Stamford in Central Park, John Watson walks aimlessly through the streets of New York City.





	An American Dream

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PipMer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PipMer/gifts).



“What’s your story?” asks the ad.

It is one of the ads from a big bank. It promises people the money to write their very own story.

John H. Watson, who recently came home from the war overseas, just thinks it to be a bad joke. His story? He was shot in the shoulder and invalided out of the army: his home, family, and life for the better part of a decade. If he had to write down his story, it would be something like “Nothing ever happens to me”, and seriously, that does not sound like a bestseller.

John is not an idiot.

He knows that all he could afford would be a bedsit in a terrible part of the city. No one would give him a mortgage, and who would want him as a flatmate anyway, him, with the nightmares that keep him awake at night, the tremor in the hand, the scarred shoulder.

 

* * *

 

There is an ad for a TV show.

It airs Sundays. “How to make it in America”: According to the description, one should dream big or go home. Young people, eager and excited, the skyline of the Big Apple in the background, the people smiling down at him, all young and healthy; they are mocking him. John is sure of it.

 

* * *

 

A yellow cab passes by.

On top of the car is an ad. Ad number three, not that John is counting. But seriously, what else can he do to pass his time? The ad shows a young woman who is doing a pose that John could not do even back in university days. John played rugby with the lads. Those lads want to drag him back, herd him into a bar. Bill Murray has texted him countless times already. John ignores the alerts as best he can.

John is a master in ignoring things these days. It is the big city that calls to him, that welcomed him back. There is no better place to hide than here. One can get lost.

Tourists, commuters, citizens alike. John might never answer the phone call of his sister Harry, but the call of his hometown. That was never a question. Another ad that says “Money can’t buy style”.

The NYC taxi with this forth ad drives farther down the Avenue of the Americans.

 

* * *

 

John wanted to go back to Central Park.

It might sound crazy (and John had a paper that stated PTSD, so he was officially crazy) but all he wanted during the long days and nights in the Afghan desert, with the bombs falling down and the endless silence before and after, was to see the green again. Not only the green grass but also the big maps and flags. The white on green phrase of “Welcome to Central Park”.

It is the so-called “World’s backyard”, and how John longed to come back.

The castle, the pond, the bridge. Oh, he did not need much to paint a picture in his head. Back then, he imagined himself taking up jogging. Maybe even riding a bike. He would have needed to take up some sport to stay fit, to keep the muscle tone as long as possible.

The reality?

An old man with a cane.

 

* * *

 

There are people on the streets of New York City.

A black man is sleeping in a blue chair. His hoodie is almost completely hides his face. He has no concern for his leather bag that he has dropped carelessly on the blue table next to him. His feet are bare. The jeans are too short. He only has his black hoodie and a plain white T-Shirt. It is New York’s Broadway. People rushing by.

The black man hears no one.

No one sees him.

Two metres next to the man stands another man. The white man is considerably older. He might be close to retirement. Still, the man is all business. Expensive suit, tie, glasses. He does not register what goes on around him. He is talking agitatedly with someone on his cell phone.

 

* * *

 

There are homeless people on the streets of New York City.

And there are the people who kneel down to speak eye to eye with these people. One scene John witnesses on Park Avenue. There is a black woman around John’s age. She is wearing a grey jumpsuit. Big earrings. Flashy. She might work here. The woman opposite her might only share her age. East-European heritage. Mismatched clothes, clearly second hand. There is no cardboard sign with her story. There is no box or cup for collecting coins. There is not even a blanket to sit on.

The woman simply sits and the other woman kneels at her eye-level.

They talk.

 

* * *

 

The New York Public Library is celebrating 130 years.

“Find the future”, that is the name of their special exhibition.

It is free until the 29th of January.

 

* * *

 

John will go to Central Park.

There, John will bump into Mike Stamford. Mike will tell him about a strange man called Sherlock Holmes who is looking for a flatmate. The lunatic will ask “Afghanistan or Iraq?” and will read his whole life story off his sister’s old mobile phone. Oh, and this man is a consulting detective who believes in the impossible and wears posh clothes and has an even more posh accent, and he even has a homeless network who are his eyes and ears in the city. New York City, his very own battlefield.

This man, Sherlock Holmes, will say “The Game is on”, and John Watson will follow him.

 

That is his American dream.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on 4th of July in 2017. Now, beta read and edited by pipmer. Thank you dear! Hopefully, the future of us all will be merrier and bright!


End file.
